With the drive platform done and almost eight pounds to spare, there was a lot of
room for the weapon systems. Spanky
was built for two primary events:
DragonCon Robot Battles and
Motorama Robot Conflict. At Robot
Battles, the main weapon rule that
had to be looked at was the 20 ft/s
spinning weapon speed limitation. At
Motorama in the Sportsman class, the
main weapon rules that had to be
considered were that any high RPM
spinning weapon had to be a cutting
device instead of a kinetic impact
based device, and that it had to have
an active weapon of some sort.

Given those rules, the four initial
weapon concepts were: a hammer, an
axe, a chainsaw, and a circular saw.
The axe and hammer would be Robot
Battles specific; the chainsaw would
be designed to spin with a tooth
speed of 20 ft/s; and the circular
be legal for Motorama.

The hammer weapon is a fairly
simple design. The main body consists
of a 2” x 1” section of rectangular
tubing welded to a 1” x 1” section of
square tubing in a T shape. Four sets
of flanges are then welded to the
1” x 1” section of tubing to create the
main body hammer attachment.

A domed 1/16” steel plate is then
welded to the attachment flanges on
each side of the hammer body. This
attachment isn’t expected to be
particularly destructive, however, it
should have a nice visual impact and
should make quite a bit of noise
when in use.

The axe is by far the most
dangerous of the non-active
attachments. The main blade is made
from waterjet cut 1/4” thick 4130
steel that has been ground and torch
hardened. The axe blade is welded to
the same 2” x 1” rectangular tubing
that the hammer arm is attached to.

Featured
This Month:

28 BUILD REPORT:
Spanky —
Part 2: Modular
Weapon Systems

by Mike Jeffries

31 The Evolution of
Attitude

by Troy Mock

35 BUILD REPORT:
Isotelus Rex —
Part 4: The Sprint to
the Finish Line

by Pete Smith

38 CARTOON

Spanky

● by Mike Jeffries

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